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Brandon Rush "I want to be the next Reggie Miller"

NEW YORK | Brandon Rush walked around the TV interview room, feeling a bit lost with a Portland Trail Blazers cap on his head.

“This is pretty weird,” Rush said. “I hope there aren’t any Indiana people around here.”

It just wouldn’t be right for Rush’s draft night to go off without a hitch. When it comes to getting to the NBA, Rush only knows unforeseen twists and turns. On Thursday, the script flipped again when the Portland Trail Blazers picked Rush 13th overall and then traded him to the Indiana Pacers in a package for No. 11 pick Jerryd Bayless.

Ten minutes after the trade was announced, Rush was still looking for a Pacers cap. The trade hadn’t been officially passed by league officials, but Rush didn’t care.

“I might have to switch with Bayless,” Rush said.

All awkwardness aside, Rush’s night couldn’t have gone much better. A year after tearing his ACL and wondering whether he would ever be the same player again, Rush, a Kansas City native, was selected in the draft lottery.

“People doubted I would be the same player,” Rush said.

Yet, here he was on Thursday morning, hanging out with his relatively small entourage in the lobby of the Westin Times Square, looking corporate already with a white dress shirt and black slacks.

“It didn’t really hit me until I woke up this morning, like, today is the day my dream comes true,” Rush said. “It was taking forever for a while.”

When Rush says forever, he means it. Remember, he wanted to turn pro out of high school but eventually decided to go to college. He wanted to go after his sophomore year at Kansas, but the most fortuitous injury in KU history occurred and Rush was forced to hang around for one more year. Rush has no regrets. But it still felt like forever.

“I think it was better I did it this way,” Rush said. “If I would have come out of high school, my freshman year or sophomore year, I don’t think I would have been in the green room. I don’t think I was that type of player that would be in the green room.”

Rush found out that he was invited to the green room on Sunday. That was the first tangible sign that he had moved himself into prime position during his tour of workouts over the last two months, the first sign that he had indeed made it.

On Thursday morning, that made Rush think about all the doubters back in his hometown, like a principal at Westport High School who predicted that the youngest of the three Rush brothers would “amount to nothing,” according to Rush.

“She’s wrong,” Rush said. “Big time.

“I think this will be a nice thing to go back and slap everybody in the face for doubting me.”

Rush was accompanied by his brother, Kareem; his best friend from KC, Tim Blackwell; and an uncle. Blackwell, who played with Rush as a kid and went to UMKC, said he was speechless about being in the Big Apple with his childhood buddy.

“Anytime someone makes it like this that you know, it’s just amazing,” Blackwell said. “I’m just happy for him.”

Kareem Rush knew what it was like for Brandon, growing up in his and JaRon Rush’s shadow.

“People looked at him under a microscope,” Kareem said. “Brandon has accomplished more than me and JaRon both accomplished in our college careers. I’m proud of him.”

Rush arrived in the green room — it is actually not a room, but a closed-off area that everybody in the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden could see very clearly — about an hour before the draft. He sat around and sent text messages on his iPhone.

“I just can’t wait for this to be over,” Rush said.

The last few months have been a whirlwind. Rush moved to Chicago and worked out with renowned basketball trainer Tim Grover and a physical therapist. He worked out in front of 10 teams — a very large number — and tried to leave everything he had on the court each time.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” Rush said. “You don’t know what teams are really interested in you. Everything, I did to the extreme. I hustled every time I stepped on the court.”

Rush’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, said Rush impressed the Pacers from the beginning. Actually, he impressed everybody, it seemed.

Bartelstein got the news of the planned pick-and-trade deal with Portland and Indiana and relayed it to Rush. It was Rush’s job to field questions as if he knew nothing of the trade, which also included a swap of Indiana’s Ike Diogu and Portland’s Jarrett Jack. Rush handled the task admirably, talking about Portland’s young talent and great organization.

When Rush was picked, he walked through a throng of fans, all trying to give him five or share pounds of the fist. Yells of “Rock Chalk!” were mixed in with pleas for the attention of “B-Rush!”

Before long, Rush would put on a different cap. Rush had already made the connection that being a Pacer meant possibly playing on the same team with Kareem, who is a free agent and could re-sign with Indiana.

“Nothing like a little sibling rivalry,” Kareem said.

Brandon wasn’t too worried about a possible battle with Kareem for playing time. He was thinking bigger. Much bigger.

Re: Brandon Rush "I want to be the next Reggie Miller"

Conversely, we may be able to sign Kareem to another, cheap one-year deal if having his brother here would an incentive for him to stick around.

We probably don't need him, but if he'll stick around for $1.5 million, you might as well hang onto him as an asset. We're probably gonna be active in February with a few of these expirings and anyone who wants Foster or Rasho as a Playoff big would probably see a chearp, three-point shooter like Kareem as at least a mild sweetener.

Re: Brandon Rush "I want to be the next Reggie Miller"

If Kareem is willing to be our third string SG and take a back-seat to his younger brother, I'd love to have him back. Do you know how much Kareem would make his younger bro? I don't know if any if you guys have siblings, but playing against my older brother, made me a lot better. If anyone knows Kareem's weaknesses, it's his brothers. The drive to be better, and the fact that he'll be battling his brother in practice could really accelerate Brandon's learning curve. It would be like Granger and Artest battling in practice, except these two know each other much better.

Re: Brandon Rush "I want to be the next Reggie Miller"

ive liked Rush since last year's draft, last year i had him going into top 10, then that injury occured, the only big knock about him is his assertiveness.. he got skills, he is long for his size and he can shoot, its just his assertiveness.

When we picked Bayless at 11, i was hoping that Rush would go down to 17th pick to be chosen by Toronto For us, but as it turned out, it never needed to do that. Bird already got his eyes on Rush the whole time. Bayless is a talent tho, i think of him as the unorthodox point guard or shooting guard, but with rush, we are getting a SG that can defend and shoot

Re: Brandon Rush "I want to be the next Reggie Miller"

I think Kareem needs to move on. I'm worried as hell about the two of them being on the same team.

Actually, I can see both Rush boys being here.

Kareem plays at the 2-Guard and Brandon has been listed as a 3 (SF). IF Shawn does get traded, I can see Brandon sliding over to backup Granger/Dunleavy and Bird retaining Kareem. Frankly, when the Toranto trade was announced yet no additional player was mentioned, I was hoping we'd get Joey Graham. But having the Rush boys wouldn't be bad either.

Re: Brandon Rush "I want to be the next Reggie Miller"

It's kind of wierd that this thread came up. Late last night, after reading all the doom and gloom about the draft night trade, I decided to post what I had learned about Brandon Rush after traveling to Austin/San Antonio and watching him the NCAA finals.

A Renewal of Faith and the Re-Birth of a Fan

...All I can say about Rush is that if one can accept the fact that there will only be one and only one Reggie Miller, then you should be able to appreciate Brandon Rush… because coming out of college he is about as similar to Reggie in the way that he approaches offense as you are going to get.

He didn’t create many of his own shots, but like Reggie he definitely grasps how to effectively use screens or even an opposing player to rub off his man. He gets his shot off quicker than Reggie and his form is much better. He was the fan favorite of most of the Kansas fans, and after focusing on him off-and-on for 2 games, I’m definitely a fan.

As rookie, we’ll get on him about his defense, but we will definitely appreciate his offensive contributions. He’s got a lot of offensive smarts. The confidence and willingness to take “the shot” is not going to be a problem with Rush, at any range and at any time during the game. Sounds a lot like Reggie, doesn’t it?...

Folks might take exception at the gall of a rookie even mentioning his name in the same sentence with the name of Reggie Miller, especially a Pacer fan.

But I suspect that Rush realizes that there are a lot of similarities between important aspects of his offensive game and that of Reggie Miller.

Because quite frankly, except maybe for maybe the young Reggie's ego and boldness in expressing that ego, whereas Rush is much more humble, I'd say that the two are very similar in their offensive approach to the game.

And I believe that Rush is totally capable of being a mini-Reggie. He's certainly capable of hitting every shot that Reggie ever hit throughout his career.

It all comes down to whether he is willing to work as hard as Reggie did and whether he develops the mental toughness that Reggie was able to muster.

His offensive skill set is certainly comparable, except for maybe Reggie's floater.

But what I like is that he has publicly challenged himself. He made the statement, it didn't come from anyone else.

HE wants to be the next Reggie Miller. To me that is a very bold statement. Reggie's dedication to preparation is certainly very well known to anyone who has followed basketball over the last 20 years. So to me, Rush's statement has to mean that he is absolutely willing to work his butt off to become the best player he is capable of being.

A promise of such dedication is a very strong statement and its a promise by which he will certainly be measured.